The Austrian Jesus-grinders Belphegor have returned back with a new plate of flesh-ripping and blasphemous tunes in their pockets, ready to slaughter and slice to pieces a bunch of sanctimonious Christian people, and not for the first time. This time all the slaughtering is about to happen under the massive wings of Nuclear Blast Records – through the new home of Belphegor, as PESTAPOCALYPSE VI, is the band´s 6th full-length album already, but their 1st for new label, Nuclear Blast Records.

Listening to all these profane, wicked and grotesque-by-nature Black/Death Metal assaults off of PESTAPOCALYPSE VI, we cannot do much else, but proclaim victoriously “Jesus is dead – long live Satan!”. The band´s chaotic and apocalyptic journey through the smoking fields of both Black – and Death Metal is somewhat all-devastating, supported by an enormous arsenal of weapons for mass destruction that will surely find the last human being on the face of the chaos-ridden earth.

Uh, a bit seriously again. First off, I ashamed of confessing that Belphegor´s PESTAPOCALYPSE VI is my first contact to the band´s bestial world of ripping metal sounds where an unholy alliance between Black – and Death Metal has been entered somewhat in a perfect way. I mean, if you dug bands like Nile, Dark Funeral, Morbid Angel and Immolation, then nothing should stop you liking Belphegor either. These Austrian satanic extreme metallers simply ooze the word ´talented´ to every possible direction; so convincingly and determinedly that you kind of automatically start thinking what drugs you have to be in to produce this ear-capturing and highly addictive noise - in the positive tone of the word, naturally. Belphegor is just amazing at everything what they do on PESTOCALYPSE VI. Without hiding my pure and sincere enthusiasm a bit, it´s gotta be said Helmuth´s vocalism is just truly outstanding. The guy does really well both Death Metal growls as well as Black Metal shrieks, without sounding like his vocal parts could be sort of ´pushed´ or anything like that at all. Also, Helmuth seems to have an extraordinary skill to find all those sinfully catchy and fitting elements for their songs that carry really the songs forward easily and effortlessly. Therefore the result cannot be anything, but damn breath-taking, and just fucking killer. Undoubtedly Sigurd has also had his own big role in this whole project to churn out some of his vilest and most soul-splitting riffs and wicked melodies out of his 6-string flame thrower, to make them match with Helmuth´s ideas and visions how PESTAPOCALYPSE VI should sound when it eventually would hit listeners´ fragile home stereo systems.

The highest levels of genuine musical blasphemies are reached in such evil anthems on PESTAPOCALYPSE VI as “Belphegor – Hell´s Ambassor”, “Seyn Todt in Schwartz (this neck-breaking song goes even beyond the intensity level of any Dark Funeral song)”, “Angel of Retribution (which crushes with its utter heaviness)”, “Chants for the Devil (which is pretty much just about all that what the title implies... devilish chanting!), “The Ancient Enemy (that reaches a very hysterical level right from the beginning – and having a very strong Dark Funeral´ish vibe in it, too) – and in fact, Belphegor doesn´t fail to show their merciless red and sharp beast´s claws in any of the songs on this thoroughly brilliant album. Obviously the band´s main intention is to rape, murder and desecrate on their latest collection of satanic verses, and that goal they have easily accomplished even. PESTAPOCALYPSE VIscreams for the numbers 6-6-6 with the loudest and most soul-piercing volumes, so you´d better start dealing with it.

As a final note, the album has been recorded at Stage One Studios under a professional ear of the well-known producer Andy Classen, so I guess everyone already knows in advance what to expect from that department. ´nuff said, I think.

PESTOAPOCALYPSE VI belongs to the finest class of a bestial and satanic insanity. Let´s hail Satan for that, shall we?